We decided to go camping for the long weekend and on Friday at about 3:30 pm we left home and headed towards the Otways. We were about 3 hours later than we had hoped to leave, and we just hoped we would find a campsite somewhere. We knew it would be busy on the coast, eing a long weekend and the last weekend of the school holidays, but we were a little unprepared to see caravan parks on the way full to bursting! Luckily we managed to find somewhere to set up the camper at Aire River, and even though the campsite had seemed full when we got there, many, many more caravans and camper trailers arrived to squash in with their friends who were already camped there. It was a very busy and very noisy campsite.

Saturday morning Andrew took the kids for a walk and after a while Nathan came running back really excited that we could go canoeing. He was literally jumping up and down while he told me all about the canoes we could hire. So it was into the bathers and over the bridge to the canoe hire trailer for some life jackets and a canoe. We hired it for an hour and the boys had a great time.

After lunch we went for a drive to see if we could find a beach to have a swim at. First we went along a sandy track across the bridge just to see where it went. It was good to have a go at letting down the tyres for sand driving and then pump them back up again with our air compressor. Then we headed to Johanna Beach which was really, really rough. Nathan was disappointed that he wasn’t going to be able to have a go with his boogie board. The campground at Johanna Beach was as crowded as the one we were camped in at Aire River.

It was a very noisy night. Some people had a fire going just behind our camper trailer and they had a big night with loud music and drinking.

Sunday we went to visit my aunt and uncle at Timboon. We got there in time for lunch and we were certainly well fed. After lunch Leonie took us to see the horses and both kids fed them some apple and she got Nathan up on the back of one of the horses. He was a bit unsure about it but I think he enjoyed being up there. Ray took each of the kids in turn on a quick quad bike ride just before we left which they loved. Toby fell asleep on the way back to Aire River. I put him in the tent when we got back and he slept for 12.5 hours!

Monday we packed up the camper. It was pretty wet but the sun was hot and the camper dried quite quickly. Toby fell asleep in the car soon after we left Aire River and so we drove until we got to Aireys Inlet where we had some lunch. We were heading for a beach at Point Roadnight which was just before we got to Anglesea. One of the other campers told me about it this morning and it sounded perfect for the boys. In fact, it was perfect. It was shallow and sheltered and the small waves were perfect for Nathan to try out his boogie board on. Toby even had a go in the water with his pool noodle but he preferred to play in the sand.

Besides the crowded, noisy campground full of people drinking, smoking and swearing, we had a lovely weekend. And I’m keen to go back to the beach at Point Roadnight again, that was a great find. 🙂

Johanna Beach

Johanna Beach

Excited Nathan ready to try out his boogie board

On you get Nathan….

Hooray!

Toby is a bit unsure about the ocean….

But he loves the sand.

Exhausted and freezing Nathan warming up on the sand.